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Environmental performance of organic farming

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Green Technologies in Food Production and Processing

Part of the book series: Food Engineering Series ((FSES))

Abstract

As a typical cradle-to-cradle approach, organic farming suits the notion of a green technology. However, a generally valid quantification of the environmental performance of organic agriculture is difficult because there is a high variability between countries, regions, farm types, and products. Furthermore, different assessment methods lead to partly contradicting conclusions on the environmental impacts of organic farming. This chapter gives an overview on the environmental impacts of organic agriculture compared with those of conventional agriculture based on state-of-the-art literature and discusses methodological implications for the comparison of environmental impacts of farming systems. According to most of the reviewed literature organic farming performs better in terms of biodiversity, soil fertility and air quality, mitigating resource depletion, climate change mitigation, and groundwater pollution as compared with conventional agriculture. However, there are single environmental indicators in some of the above-mentioned fields, against which organic agriculture performs equally or even worse (N2O emissions and CH4 emissions per unit of product produced), depending on the assumptions and methodology of the study. Finally, this paper highlights nine common methodological problems of quantifying environmental impacts of farming systems that have been identified in the reviewed literature and suggests solutions for improvement.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Council Regulation (EC) No. 834/2007 of 28 June 2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products, repealing Regulation (EEC) No. 2092/91, O.J. L 189/21 2007. This regulation was amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 967/2008 of 29 September 2008, O.J. L 264/1 (2008).

  2. 2.

    Commission Regulation (EC) No. 889/2008 of 5 September 2008 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No. 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products O.J. L 250/1, which was amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1254/2008 of 15 December 2008, amending Regulation (EC) 889/2008 laying down detailed rules for implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No. 834/2007, O.J. L 337/80.

  3. 3.

    Ordinance on Organic Farming. Verordnung des EVD vom 22. September 1997 über die biologische Landwirtschaft (SR 910.181).

  4. 4.

    Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2092/91 of 24 June 1991 on organic production of agricultural products and indications referring there to on agricultural products and foodstuffs.

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  1. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Frick, Switzerland

    Christian Schader, Matthias Stolze & Andreas Gattinger

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  1. Christian Schader
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Correspondence to Christian Schader .

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  1. Food Research & Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Casavant Boulevard W. 3600, St.-Hyacinthe, J2S 8E3, Québec, Canada

    Joyce I. Boye

  2. Food Research & Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Casavant Boulevard W. 3600, St.-Hyacinthe, J2S 8E3, Québec, Canada

    Yves Arcand

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Schader, C., Stolze, M., Gattinger, A. (2012). Environmental performance of organic farming. In: Boye, J., Arcand, Y. (eds) Green Technologies in Food Production and Processing. Food Engineering Series. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1587-9_8

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